The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 141 Run away after making trouble
In modern times, there are only three ways for countries to raise funds. One is to create a moderate amount of inflation by issuing sovereign currency and create funds out of thin air; the second is to expand taxation; and the third is to use national debt.

When it comes to issuing currency, the Ming Dynasty's banknote method has long been ruined. Now it has entered the silver standard. The source of silver is still obtained from sea trade. Don't even think about issuing sovereign currency to make money.

As for expanding taxation, the Ming Dynasty also tried it in the previous history, and the result was frequent civil unrest.

The tax system of the Ming Dynasty is too inefficient. After so many years of lazy administration by Emperor Wanli, it has become seriously ill. Even if taxation is expanded now, only half of the money received from the treasury will be felt by the people. But extremely strong.

In the end, the only option is national debt.

The Ming Dynasty's salt and tea imports also had a visible growth ceiling, and they could not afford much financing. The ship imports issued based on foreign trade with almost unlimited profits naturally became the best anchor for national debt.

These three suggestions are all methods that Wang Wenlong came up with after repeated thinking.

The Ming Dynasty's framework is already very fragile and cannot withstand drastic reforms. It must obtain sufficient overseas benefits before it can move internally. The Donglin Party's internal fighting method will only make the original framework even worse. .

This time Wang Wenlong was forced to take the lead in writing a petition. After much deliberation, he decided to use this opportunity to express all his ideas for the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Wenlong knew that these paths would certainly not meet everyone's ideas, but at least they would be able to gain support from some business gentry.

In this way, the Donglin Party can only hold its nose and swallow it, and he himself can do business.

In the end, the outcome of this mighty Changzhou meeting seemed to be pretty much what he had expected.

The Donglin Party pinched their noses and recognized Wang Wenlong's proclamation, and asked all the students in Changzhou to sign it. However, after sending the letter, the Donglin Party seemed to have never taken the lead in this matter. They never mentioned Wang Wenlong's edict again, and even quietly Suppress these three suggestions of Wang Wenlong so that they do not spread on a large scale.

However, the Changzhou Cultural Society's battle was too big, with more than 300 people present that day, and Wang Wenlong's ideas were quickly discussed by officials and merchants in South Zhili.

Everyone generally feels that although Wang Wenlong's proposal does not sound as good as the Donglin Party's request, and some literati continue to criticize Wang Wenlong, some businessmen think this is a more feasible method.

The one who was really happiest was Ouyang Dongfeng, the prefect of Changzhou. He originally thought that the Donglin Party was going to send a fierce letter to the party. Although he agreed to help, he was frightened.

Until he got Wang Wenlong's article signed with the names of Changzhou students, Ouyang Dongfeng read it for a while, was dumbfounded, and then overjoyed.

Submitting this article will definitely not make the eunuch unhappy, and even if the emperor sees it, he will not object much.This time, the pressure he has to bear as the prefect of Changzhou is much less.

It was difficult to be an official in Changzhou. Ouyang Dongfeng even thought that it would be great if all the scholars in Changzhou were Wang Wenlong.

……

On the second day of the Changzhou lecture, Wang Wenlong and Ye Chengxue returned to Suzhou together.

Gao Panlong and Gu Xiancheng came to see him off, and Xue Fujiao and others also discussed the theory behind his proposition with Wang Wenlong.

Although the more objective Xue Fujiao among the Donglin bosses did not completely agree with Wang Wenlong's ideas in the end, he had to admit that Wang Wenlong's statement made some sense.

As for An Xifan and others, I don't know whether they were angry and didn't want to come, or they wanted to attack Wang Wenlong, so they were persuaded by Gao Panlong and others to stay at home. Anyway, they didn't show up from the beginning to the end.

After getting on the boat, Wang Wenlong smiled at Ye Chengxue and said, "You seem to be quite dissatisfied with me?"

Ye Chengxue raised his head and looked at him: "Jianyang has tricked me again this time."

The last time Ye Chengxue participated in writing "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution", he was scolded by his father Ye Xianggao. This time, Ye Chengxue had good intentions when he took Wang Wenlong to Changzhou, but this time he would definitely have to be scolded by his father again when he went back. scold.

Ye Chengxue was already an official at this time. Although it didn't matter whether his Shang Bao Sicheng took up the job or not, he acted more cautiously, but he didn't expect that just being an intermediary would bring bad luck.Wang Wenlong laughed loudly after listening to Ye Chengxue's words.

"Do you want me to say something against my will?"

Ye Chengxue had also read the manuscript of "The Wealth of Nations". As early as when Wang Wenlong and Xue Fujiao expressed their opinions, he actually understood what Wang Wenlong meant, and he could only nod after thinking about it.

He also reminded Wang Wenlong: "It will be extremely difficult to implement these suggestions in Jianyang."

Wang Wenlong nodded in agreement: "But you have to say it."

Wang Wenlong has no hope at all whether the contents of this letter will be implemented.

These three methods are simple to say, but in fact, if you want to complete any of them, you will definitely have to go through a long struggle. I am afraid that there will be no dawn within ten years.

The key is that Wanli's character is too complete.

Wanli is an enjoyment personality. The purpose of making money is to spend it on himself. Unlike Xu Guangqi, who is an entrepreneurial personality. The purpose of making money is to make more money. Only people like Xu Guangqi may take risks in order to make more money. Wanli is Only choose the easiest path.

That guy Wanli wasn't even interested in fighting with civil servants. Wang Wenlong didn't expect him to have the ambition to develop such a huge undertaking.

But there has to be someone who advocates its cause, and after much deliberation, Wang Wenlong felt that there was no better opportunity than at this Changzhou meeting.

The heated discussion in Changzhou after the lecture at least proved that these principles could be discussed by Changzhou officials and merchants after this time, and Wang Wenlong could not control how far the aftermath would go.

In fact, Wang Wenlong is rather pessimistic. After all, he knows that this time Wanli, the Shangshu in various places, will ignore them all. Wanli even took action again at the end of the year to eliminate a group of local officials who offended the tax inspectors and eunuchs.

Wang Wenlong felt that the turmoil he caused this time would end there - at this time, Wang Wenlong felt that whether his petition could be seen by Wanli this time was a problem, and he did not think much about the consequences of Wanli's reading of this article. .

……

Yuan Wuya went to Henan shortly after attending the Wushan Literary Society. On the one hand, he went to visit Li Zhi, and on the other hand, he wanted to see the excavation of oracle bone inscriptions and find out whether Wang Jide had written any new music scores. Both could produce several good books.

Before leaving Suzhou, Wang Wenlong spent half a month in seclusion and finally completed the manuscript of "The Wealth of Nations".

Yuan Wuya was still staying in Henan, but Wang Wenlong had already agreed with Yuan Wuya about the publication of "The Wealth of Nations", so he left the manuscript at Xu Shupi's home and asked him to give it to Yuan Wuya when he returned to Suzhou. .

At the end of June of the 28th year of Wanli, just when Ouyang Dongfeng submitted Wang Wenlong's article to the capital, Wang Wenlong also left Suzhou with Xi Langxian.

This year's summer was extremely hot. It would be an exaggeration to say that the ground was a thousand miles away.

Fortunately, success was achieved in the promotion of new crops last year. Before the summer this year, various places in Fujian were experimenting with planting pumpkins and sweet potatoes. After the sweet potato powder became marketable, some local officials also pinched their noses and recognized that potato farmers would use the money gained from selling sweet potato powder. Grain tax approach.

Although the planting area of ​​sweet potatoes and pumpkins is far from reaching the scale of Fujian in the previous life, it is always better than nothing.

In July, Wang Wenlong returned to Fuzhou despite the scorching heat. As soon as he entered the "Xunbao" newspaper office under preparation, Deng Zhimo led a young man with a mustache over: "Jianyang, let me introduce to you the current affairs of "Xunbao" Edition editor.”

Wang Wenlong's eyes lit up when he saw this man, and he said in surprise: "Is it possible that Mr. Shaohe is interested in joining the "Xun Bao"?"

(End of this chapter)